The Puckle gun was a British flintlock machinegun invented
by James Puckle in 1718. It took a nine- round revolving
block, was mounted on a tripod and was designed to be
portable and especially to prevent an enemy boarding a ship.
An unusual feature was that it fired square bullets.
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James Puckle (c. 1667-1724) was a notary-public and
also an author, his best-known work - reprinted as recently as
1900 - being The Club, a moral dialogue between a father
and son. His 'portable gun or machine called a defence' -
designed to fire round bullets against Christians and square
ones against Turks - is one of his only two known ventures in
the field of military technology (the other being a sword
concerning which no details are recorded). In 1717 it was
rejected for government use after trials at Woolwhich, but,
despite this, he obtained a patent on 15 May 1718, and then
made strenuous efforts to market the gun, raising a
company for this purpose in 1721. In March, 1722 the
Daily Courant carried an advertisement for 'Several sizes
in Brass and Iron of Mr. Puckle's Machine or Gun, called a
Defence....at the Workshop thereof, in White-Cross-Alley,
Middle Moorfields'. At the end of the same month the
London Journal reported that at a demonstration of one
of the guns 'one Man discharged it 63 times in seven Minutes,
though all the while Raining; and that it throws off either
one large or sixteen Musquet Balls at every discharge
with very greatForce'

James Puckle of London, England, demonstrated his
new invention, the "Puckle Gun," a tripod-mounted,
single-barreled flintlock gun fitted with a multishot
revolving cylinder. This weapon fired nine shots per
minute at a time when the standard soldier's musket
could be loaded and fired but three times per minute.
Puckle demonstrated two versions of the basic design.
One weapon, intended for use against Christian enemies,
fired conventional round bullets, while the second variant,
designed to be used against the Muslim Turks, fired square
bullets, which were believed to cause more severe and
painful wounds than spherical projectiles.
The "Puckle Gun" failed to attract investors and never
achieved mass production or sales to the British armed
forces. One newspaper of the period observed following
the business venture's failure that "those are only
wounded who hold shares therein." (1718)